Report: Maloofs Have Backup Plan to Take Seattle Money But Retain Control of Kings

ESPN.com reports the team's majority owners have agreed to sell 20 percent of the team for $125 million. The agreement would be a backup plan should the other owners fail to approve a Seattle group's bid to buy control of the team and move it.

If the report is true, it would seem the Maloof family has
every intent of removing the Sacramento Kings from the city the
team has called home for 28 years.

Two sources told ESPN.com the Maloofs will not sell the team to
a group that wants to keep the Kings in Sacramento and help build a
downtown arena.

The Maloofs have made a separate agreement with Chris Hansen,
Steve Ballmer and the Nordstrom family that makes up the Seattle
investors besides an earlier agreement to sell all of the Maloof
shares. The sale of 20 percent of the team would allow the Maloofs
to continue to run the franchise.

Sources told ESPN that the new agreement also includes a $4
million payment to each team in the form of a relocation
fee.

The report comes a day after Hansen announced an increase in the
total valuation of the franchise, and the agreed purchase price to
the Maloof family and Robert Hernreich for their 65-percent stake
in the team.

Hansen has also made a request to buy a seven-percent minority
share of the team. But, the National Basketball Association has not
voted on that request.

The league's owners are expected to vote on the Hansen bid for
the majority shares on Wednesday. The owners can block a relocation
and a sale of a team. But, they can not directly force a fellow
owner to sell to any particular group.

The Sacramento group has put half of its $341 million bid in
escrow. It has not matched either of the Seattle group's bid
increases since the Hansen-Ballmer group originally announced it
had a deal to buy control of the team in January.

Two weeks ago, an NBA relocation committee recommended against
moving the Sacramento franchise. An owner on that committee, Micky
Arison tweeted that the decision was not based on the Seattle
group's bid, but rather on Sacramento providing no reason to move
the team.